PHILADELPHIA — They are 3-3 and on a two-game winning streak, will play a division rival Sunday for first place in the NFC East and are scoring whenever they please, and their head coach even has had the decency to supply the fans with a raging quarterback debate.

The Eagles. They are relevant again.

They are relevant already.

That’s how everything is scored in sports any more: Relevant or not relevant? It’s how players are paid, and it’s why coaches are hired. Teams must be where the Eagles are seven weeks into this season. They cannot be where they were 17 weeks into the last one.

The technical hows and the whys are complicated, everything from Chip Kelly’s innovative offense to the fact that the two-game streak came against teams that still have not won a game. But even so soon into the Kelly era, it’s clear that the Eagles are trending positive. And should they beat the Cowboys Sunday in the Linc, they will have full control of first place in the NFC East heading into the eighth week of the season.

And maybe that is not worthy of a Gatorade bath, the kind Andy Reid took after winning a Week 3 game. But how about a hip-hip-horray? A golf clap? A way-to-go? A tip of the (officially licensed) visor?

“No,” Kelly said Monday, outside the NewsControl Compound, a day after the Birds’ 31-20 victory in Tampa. “And again, we don’t talk about first place, the seventh week into the season. The only time we talk about it is whenever this thing finishes, after our last game.”

It was the smart play by Kelly, the front man in an organization that once or twice under Jeffrey Lurie has been caught prematurely appointing itself a success. The last thing Kelly needed was film of himself doing the raise-the-roof arm gesture in mid-October of his first NFL season, aware as he is of how tough it was to win two consecutive games, let alone a third, against a Dallas team capable of shredding his defense.

But the conversation was about the direction, not the destination. And having already won one fewer game than the Birds did all of last season — and without massive personnel changes — Kelly has properly re-set the franchise GPS. Nor is that an after-the-bell swipe at Reid, who has done the same thing in Kansas City, and who could share a Coach of the Year photo finish with Kelly. There is room for more than one NFL example of success. But it is proof that the Eagles needed a change, just in case Reid’s 12-20 record in his last two seasons didn’t provide that clarity.

Last year, the Eagles were lost on defense, requiring a midseason change of coordinators. This year, they have problems, but are improving, not regressing. Last year, Reid’s eternal reliance on the passing attack had grown useless and absurd. This year, LeSean McCoy is leading the NFL in rushing.

And last year, the Eagles played as if they expected to lose — a cue, perhaps, from the owner, who clumsily established an 8-and-8-or-else demand on Reid, a tell that he was in a mood for change.

This year, they fell to 1-3, losing twice at home, then recovered and will be favored Sunday to become 3-0 in their division.

“I’ve seen improvement from our team, from where we started to where we are right now,” Kelly said. “We’re still disappointed in the three losses that we had. So we can’t say, ‘Hey, we are really happy with where we are right now.’ You don’t want to be 3-and-3, you wish you were 6-and-0.”

Dallas is next, with the rivalry, generations deep. Kelly was asked about that, and he punted, suggesting that games against all NFC East opponents generate similar fan passion. That said something, too. For the cockeyed Dallas Week rant historically was necessary for Eagles teams who needed such artificial motivation fountains — first from Dick Vermeil, then from Buddy Ryan, both of whom took over decrepit programs and tried to manufacture relevance.

These Eagles? Not really. They used quick improvement and a quicker offense to become relevant. Already.